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The Power of Suggestions
3 of Seattle's top wedding-industry professionals share their best tips
Lisbet Mielke, owner/founder, Ravishing Radish Catering
Q
A Caterers need to know how couples want their reception to feel. A plated dinner will evoke formality, whereas a family-style service format is casual and also encourages guest interaction. We also like to ask our couples to think about their history together — how they met, common interests, and favorite foods — so that we can really personalize the menu with them. If they love meat loaf, maybe we'll pass meat-loaf sliders at midnight; for a gardening couple, we'll do nasturtiums mixed into a green salad.
Q
A If there are no kitchen facilities at the venue, we need to consider working the around the limited equipment or bringing in a mobile kitchen. The cost of renting ovens, refrigeration, grills, and other items can be substantial; it's critical that, early in our negotiations, we work out a budget that takes the site into account.
Q
A It's important to keep in mind that the time of your reception will really affect the budget and your guests' expectations. When couples request a quote for light hors d'oeuvres during the standard dinner hour, we might see if it's possible to start the reception later. This allows for a less dinner-centric menu, which can lower the costs without disappointing guests.
A There is at least one food restriction for each event we do these days. Our chefs create a variety of menu items, and we present our clients with lots of options, so if there are vegan guests or friends or family with wheat, dairy, or other intolerances, we can easily work together to make everyone happy. If it's just that a single guest cannot eat a certain food, we are able to adjust that particular plate rather than revise the entire menu.
Seattle Metropolitan Bride and Groom Magazine
Summer/Fall 2010 |
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Suzanna & Ronald’s slightly unorthodox, gender-neutral, public celebration of commitment
My offbeat advice: Find vendors who support your desire to follow your own vision. Our photographer loved my dress’ color and my fiance's long dreads, and he took advantage of both to make some great pictures. Our caterers fully supported a vegan menu, and the chef made great food that everyone loved — including meat-and-potato family members.
Offbeat Bride
February, 2010 |
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Readers Choice Winner
Ravishing Radish Catering
Top 3
Seattle Bride
Best of 2009, 2010 |
Jennie Duke & Alex Ian Pfister Tryzna
Local Weddings of Note
A favorite memory is when their caterer, Ravishing Radish Catering, arranged a special hideaway where the newlyweds could eat and drink together in privacy for about 30 minutes while their guests partied on.
Seattle Bride
Best of 2009 |
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$10K Wedding Budget Challenge: Seattle, Washington $10K Wedding
Sure, we know the average wedding will run about $27,000, but that didn't stop us from asking wedding planners all over the country to accept TheKnot.com $10K Budget Challenge. Here, Sandra Watson of Go2Girl Event Planning & Design shows us how to do it in Seattle.
The Reception Dinner
Play up the laid-back feel with a summer-themed meal of hors d'oeuvres from Ravishing Radish Catering.
Instead of a full bar, stick to wine. |
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Eat Green and Celebrate
Tasting Points
Traditional timelines often schedule menu tastings as early as six months prior to the wedding, an option incompatible with seasonal eating. Instead, couples can choose to taste menu items much closer to their wedding date or have an early tasting but with different foods. This latter option allows couples to “experience how we cook, prepare and present,” explains Pam Samper, executive chef of Eastlake-based Ravishing Radish Catering, a company that recently invested in a new Ecolab green washing machine for all its linens. “As their wedding approaches, they can taste again!”
Explore Eco-friendly Meat
Vegetarian is traditionally the most environmentally friendly menu option, but many of us can’t forfeit our bacon. Fortunately, there are local, organic and natural meats that are also grass- or grain-fed and/or antibiotic- and hormone-free. “We just began offering our clients 100 percent organic chicken, and it’s beautiful,” says Ravishing Radish owner Lisbet Mielke. “You can actually see the difference when it comes in.”
Compost, Compost, Compost!
Local caterers agree that composting makes an enormous difference in reducing the amount of waste a wedding produces. Ravishing Radish began composting two years ago and cut their garbage volume in half.
Seattle Bride
Spring/Summer 2009 |
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Seattle Bride’s Favorite Things Over the Past 10 Years
  During the late-'90s cocktail culture, local caterers crafted delicious signature wedding martinis, such as the ethereal "Glacier Blue" by Lisbet Mielke of Ravishing Radish from Fall/Winter 2000.
Seattle Bride
Best of 2008 |
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Stephanie & Coby Wedding
Stephanie and Coby were married on a gorgeous day on the water in Gig Harbor.
We were thrilled to bring on a team of some of our most favorite vendors for this special event.
Guests were treated to delicious Dungeness crab cakes, grilled miso-citrus prawns, and signature summer cocktails of vodka, Amaretto, and lemonade pre-ceremony — [and a] gourmet 5-course dinner provided by one of our favorite caterers, the wonderful team at Ravishing Radish.
The team created a fabulous feast including a lemon-basil sorbet palette cleaner, plates of local artisan cheeses and gelées, and tasty grilled Oregon country sirloin steak and pan-seared halibut entrees by chef Pam Samper.
Fine Line Management & Events blog |
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  Best Caterer
Ravishing Radish Catering
1st Place |
"This year we did things a little differently and crowned our 2008 winners through votes cast by their peers in the wedding industry.We figured, who better to choose the best of the best than longtime local wedding experts who know their colleagues and the services they provide better than anyone else?"
Seattle Bride
Best of 2008
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 Photos: Susie Hamidi (top) and Ron Wurzer (bottom)
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Hagle & Garson Wedding
Robyn Hagle and Matthew Garson The cusp of Capitol Hill, the Central District, and Madison Park She works at a large law firm; he’s with a software company At a mutual friend’s cocktail party; they were the only straight people there, but it wasn’t a set-up He immediately felt that he was talking to a best friend He remembered her name later in the night so she knew he was paying attention—and she loved his curly hair and stunning eyes A magical dinner at Matt’s in the Market for her birthday...
Ravishing Radish, Seattle
Cleere & Supkay Wedding
Shannon Cleere and Pablo SupkayThey both work at a stock photo agency Pablo introduced himself while she was getting coffee at the office, they became friends but didn’t begin dating until a year later They were surprised and excited by how much they had in common He lived in New York City for some time while they were dating so they got to visit each other, which added to the anticipation and gave them the opportunity to try a lot of great restaurants...
Cocktail hour: Ravishing Radish, Seattle
Seattle Metropolitan Bride and Groom
Summer 2008 |
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 The Perfect Winter Wedding:
Kipper & Andrew
The rest of the evening was a mixture of fantastic food by Ravishing Radish — including a curried butternut squash soup that I am still craving almost a week later.
Kate McElwee Photography Blog
January 17, 2008 |
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SUMMER
Grilled Pork Tenderloin Crostini
with Merv’s Yakima Valley Organic Plums and Star Anise Syrup
This dish puts juicy, just-picked plums and pork spiced with star anise, coriander,cumin, fennel, and clove on crostini to match the warm, exciting tones
of an early summer reception. Like many of Seattle’s best caterers, Ravishing
Radish chef Pam Samper makes everything from scratch, using the freshest produce from her favorite local farms.
PAIR WITH Chinook Wines Yakima Valley Cabernet Franc Rosé to create a picnic-in-paradise vibe. By Pam Samper of Ravishing Radish Catering (206-860-7449; www.ravishingradish.com)
Seattle Metropolitan Bride and Groom
January 2008 |
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  Food for thought
You are, in your head at least, a world-class chef, but the world keeps you out of the kitchen. Your friends are voracious and open to the idea that a little vocational training can be entertaining. You want them to feel sated and educated. So you call floral designer and party planner Daniela Isabella Faget of Bella Signature Design, and she gets in touch with Ravishing Radish caterers. They come up with a participatory dinner party; the Radish chefs demonstrate sushi rolling, oyster shucking, and the careful orchestration of a decadent cheese plate. Audience participation ensues, especially when bottles of montepulciano and cava brut are opened and the wine tasting begins.
Seattle Metropolitan
November 2007 |
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In December 2007's "Real Wedding" feature, Ravishing Radish got a glowing mention in Wedding Bee — New bride Robyn gushed, "Ravishing Radish did our catering and they were wonderful. Catering was one of the expenses we didn't want to skimp on. The food total included tray-passed hors d’oeuvres, an 8 item buffet, pre-set tables, coffee, all linens, plateware, silverware, glassware, delivery fees for rentals, and floral arrangements for the buffet tables." |
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  Trends
People are concerned about their health, the environment, and their future — and all of that has an impact on what kind of catering they want.
Counting carbs seems to have gone out of style, but many diners are serious about wanting healthy food. The catch is that people's definition of "healthy" can include organic food, food prepared without transfats, low calorie food, and more. "Our clientele is requesting organic and sustainable foods on a regular basis, " says Lisbet Larsen Mielke of Ravishing Radish Catering in Seattle. "Our chef has made contacts with many local organic farmers to get the freshest at the best prices. Ravishing Radish now uses organic produce, free-range chicken, and wild seafood almost exclusively."
Catersource
January/February 2007
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Feasts that won’t fade
We asked some local caterers to share their tips on what to serve and how to keep an outdoor buffet safe and looking great — even when the heat is on.
"For an outdoor wedding, the first thing I recommend is a canopy," explains Lisbet Mielke, owner of Ravishing Radish Catering on Lake Union. "It's always best to be prepared. This is the Northwest, after all." If the location is remote and unprotected, Mielke suggests serving robust dishes that can withstand the elements.
One of her favorite outdoor menus is a hearty Tuscan feast featuring grilled foods such as rosemary chicken, fresh fillets of salmon and halibut, and plenty of vegetables. The grill forms a protective crust that keeps food fresh and flavorful. Choose salads, sauces that are at their best served at room temperature, with naturally preserved ingredients such as good olive oil, olives, flavorful vinaigrettes, chutneys and pickled items, instead of mayonnaise and dairy products.
Seasonal produce is always fresh and inviting, but for a Spring wedding Mielke suggests platters of asparagus and heaping bowls of fresh berries instead of the classic crudité plate and fruit platter.
Seattle Bride
Spring/Summer 2004 |
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 Trends for 2005
Pricing
Ravishing Radish in Seattle does sample estimates, which give clients an idea of how they bill for events. "Because each caterer bills services differently, it gives them a great tool to compare with other caterers," says Lisbet Mielke. "It also helps the saleperson give more detailed information on our pricing without creating an entirely customized estimate for each person."
Catersource
January 2005 |
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 Best Off-Site Caterer
Ravishing Radish Catering
Seattle Bride
Best of 2003 |
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